tekisui

I saw a Hyundai Tuscani hot rodding on the road the other day when I was cruising near my house. I pulled up to get a better look. I didn't know what it was 'till I saw the Tuscani badge and looked it up later when I got home. Then I realized why he suddenly wasn't interested in racing when I pulled along side him...
Hyundai's MSRP for the Tuscani is $28, 295. For that, you get a 2.7L V6 that only makes 172hp/182lb-ft torque. WTH. I fail to see why anyone would buy one of these when you can get comperable performance from something like a Sentra SE-R Spec-V (MSRP $19K, makes 175hp stock).. I'd be embarrassed if I spent that much on a car and got that little... Am I missing something? Surely Hyundai has something up their sleeve..

surfcity40

yeah right...sry, explore hyundai here.
and....here is a place to explore the model.
dang i get sidetracked.

tekisui

Thanks, d00d, thats a BOATLOAD of info. It appears that the horsepower they list is in fact measured at the wheels, which is interesting. But that still seems like WAY too much money for too little power from a 2.7L V6. I make more than that much at the wheels with my tC. It does seem like a decent car, and if it went for close to $20, it probably would be pretty popular/common.

ReverseGTR

I don't know where you got your info from but the Tiburon as it is called in North America, the top of the line SE model goes for an MSRP of $21 according to some reliable sources. I even heard some people walking out with a GT for as low as $17k. As for it being a Tuscani, someone must have bought that nameplate off of Ebay because that model only goes by that name in Europe and Japan. Also even though they maybe not the best handlers I heard the engines are easy to tune and one get 10+hp easily just by installing a cold air intake. As for the price the interiors are not too shabby, even though Tc drivers may still find it a bit Sparton.

So either you got your sources way wrong or you witnessed catasrophic dealer markup. I wonder if the next generation model will be RWD?

mandangalo

i don't know why anyone would buy a korean car for that much. the quality isn't so bad anymore, but the depreciation is.

surfcity40

brilliant post but oh so wrong. download the korean language modifier and take a tour of the Tuscani!....

tekisui

The $28K price is what I'm seeing in various places on the intarwebs. And no that's nt what I'm getting when I read foreign currency and convert it. That's what sites are listing as the MSRP, US currency and all.
Surfcity40 is right. Everything I'm seeing also indicates this is the 'sport/tuner' version of the Tiburon, not just the Tiburon as we know it. Almost like a higher trim package that's only available elsewhere. It indeed does not appear to be available over here, though the more I read about and see pictures of the Tuscani, the more I doubt what i saw definitely was a true Tuscani. They're nearly identical and the "Tuscani" I saw had some gawdawful ill-fitting body kit on it, so it's hard to be sure. Chances are it was just a riced out Tiburon. Not that that is any smarter than paying $28,000 for a true Tuscani PLUS the importing and shipping costs...
Also, the reason they probably mod so well is the massively restrictive stock parts. Getting 10hp out of a CAI on a 2.7v6 that already only makes 170 is no special accomplishment. It's simply par for the course.
I'm still not seeing mechanical justification for that kind of price. And it's not like Hyundai is selling a lifestyle or image that comes with the car. It still seems to me to belong more in the $20K-22K range, tops. For that much, I'd actually consider one. It's decent looking with a reasonably tunable engine.

GetCaughtDead

so that's what that thing was! I saw a blue one of those on 28 near Dulles about two weeks ago. I thought maybe it was a new tiburon at first, but I couldn't remember the name of it by the time I got home. anyway, it looked exactly like the pics on that site. so they're definitely not sold over here?

ddsboi

i;ve seen tibby;s badged as tuscani's. When i saw it i figured it was kinda like some IS300 owner's badging altezza. iono . . .

tekisui

Yeah, not available in the US directly as far as I can tell.

Rice check! Badging a car so people think its a higher trim model AND the faster model? Check. Ill-fitting body kit? Check. Unwarranted dual exhaust? Check. Rasp that rattles your fillings? Check. Rice rating? 9 out of 10.

I'd like to drive a Tuscani, now that I've read some about it. It would be interesting to see how it stacks up against my tC. Well, I already know the result of that. Plus I'm sure the powerband is completely different. But it would still an interesting test drive. I'm curious to see what the Koreans are doing as far as performance.

bBlover

The Tuscani is nothing but a rebadged Tiburon. I've seen this Tiburon rebadged as a Tuscani with clear heads and tails and I must say I liked it. It wasn't riced out or anything. I've noticed that the top of the line Tibby is a little expensive, I'm sure to match with the Clipse. To the Alteeza rebagding, our IS300s are at the top of the Alteeza line, cause the lower Alteezas come with hubs and maybe a radio.

kytc

My buddy that just moved down to Florida has a silver tiburon gt v6 6spd with tuscani emblems. It's nothing but a rebadged tiburon, over here at least. They're good cars, decently quick stock. He had an intake and I had headers, spipe, and intake and pulled on him hard.

ReverseGTR

Well, after searching around the net a bit I finally figured out that Hyundai only calls their coupe the Tuscani in South Korea and Japan while it is called the Coupe in Europe as well as obviously Tiburon within the Americas.

The only things that set apart the high end Tuscani from other top end SE spec Tiburon is the cross slotted front brake discs, a voltage meter above the radio, heated seats, electronic display for the A/C, hands free plug-in for cell phones, HID front headlights and a slightly larger spoiler. As for other aspects of tuning it is pretty much akin to the Tiburon GT.

For more info check out this forum: http://www.tuscani.be/forum/

In other words the top trim Tuscani has a interior and performance that can be described as on par with the Eclipse GT, in fact the 2006 Eclipse GT was probably created with Hyundai's coupe in mind.

tekisui

Blah
It's an expensive yawn.
Though I wish I had brakes like at all four corners of my tC..

TuscaniGuy

Tiburon Tuscani is available in northern North America (Canada). Oddly enough, Scion is not.
The 28K is in Canadian $
Check here for more

zer0

www.Kspec.com for all your KDM Spec Parts...including badges..

MadOnion

Tuscanis are at my dealership and I'd be glad to give you a test drive. And show you how to drive it so you can feel that v6.

tekisui

KDM? Kuwait Domestic Market?

zer0

Korean Domestic Market

tekisui

Yes, yes, I know. But Kuwait is funner. :-D Or Kazakhstan Domestic Market
I crack me up.